Richy_Boy Posted December 13, 2012 Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 Hi All; I have just upgraded to RS8 and wonder if anyone else is having the same experience? - It's the same product with some bugs fixed. - It's got the same client software update process, which cannot update a single client, it does ALL or nothing. - I asked support for documentation and they said (quote): "Agent Response: Once you have purchased the upgrades for the application and add-on licenses, you will download Retrospect. You can install the new version over the old version. Uninstall is not needed. After Retrospect is installed, you will enter your license codes. No additional configuration is needed. Thank you for using Retrospect. The Retrospect Support Team" - It still has a weird 25% CPU cap when processing i.e. grooming a large backup set - It seems to freeze and lock out the Admin until it has 'finished something' (I've not been able to use it for the last 40 minutes as it is busy doing something and 'isn't responding' when I try and click around - The OnDemand setting limits you to using a single backup set. i.e. you can't set a particular backup set per Client (i.e. put their OnDemand backups in their normal proactive backup set) - Trying to apply the Exchange license, RS crashed... which killed a groom that had been running for several hours. Anyone else seen these issues? Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted December 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 Ok, this this isn't going well. So, I can't get RS 8 client installed on our Exchange 2003 Server, it complains about permission errors when trying to start the service... no Exchange backups, no RS 8! I've had a proactive backup hang on 'building snapshot" and other servers have thrown all kinds of errors: - 13/12/2012 18:30:18: Copying Local Disk (C:) on File Server 2 (VM) Using Instant Scan File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb.chk": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb00079.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb0007A.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb0007B.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb0007C.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) (loads more under this) Looks like I may have to roll back tomorrow to 7.7... Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddfx Posted December 15, 2012 Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 I've had it a couple of weeks and it's already corrupted its unnecessarily monolithic config file twice. I'm pretty sure this is the last retrospect update I'll be suckered into paying for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted December 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2012 Yeah I've seen more issues: - In the history tab in the client, there doesn't seem to be anything in there.. - If you're connected to a VPN with full network access, the RS client cannot populate any information about when last backed up etc - Getting a lot of 'network communication failed' when it drops out a backup (these are on static servers which show no signs of problems doing any other process) - Doesn't seem to save the RS config until you close the application, so if it crashes you have to re-add any clients and make any config changes since it was last launched (probably after it crashed last time) - All backups have sometimes hundreds of errors in them from RS not being able to backup temporary files in c:\windows or Symantec or somewhere else - didn't have an issue under 7.7! - When opening a large backup set (2M files, ~750GB) it'll freeze, "not responding" for a while, then come back to life - shocking behaviour after so many years with people putting up with this fault (of course, sat at 25% CPU). You can't click between tabs without it starting the freezing process all over again. - You STILL can't delete more than one snapshot at a time, so removing a few old laptops from a large backup set takes an age... - Lack of Win 2000 support not great, considering they can easily write code to use the old 7.7 mechanism to continue supporting it... Like I said earlier, same old product, now with a couple more features that don't work properly. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David W Lee Posted December 18, 2012 Report Share Posted December 18, 2012 - 13/12/2012 18:30:18: Copying Local Disk (C:) on File Server 2 (VM) Using Instant Scan File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) File "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb.chk": can't read, error -1101 ( file/directory not found) ... The 1101 warning and several other issues are fixed. We are testing on in-house production backup systems. Once the pre-release is ready, Support can make it available to customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted December 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 Thank heavens for that... I think someone jumped the gun by releasing RS8 in this condition - it's done nothing to reassure people about improving reliability now Retrospect Inc is at the reins.. I do hope you're eating your own dog food in-house and haven't been able to do backups/grooms since upgrading too (it's a touch annoying/stressful) Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbernhardt Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 The 1101 warning and several other issues are fixed. We are testing on in-house production backup systems. Once the pre-release is ready, Support can make it available to customers. When is this going to be ready? I am seeing this issue with thousands of files. I have 8.0.0(199). Incidentally, the Check Updates tool keeps opening 2 windows: 1 tells me that 8.0.0 is available, the other says I have the latest version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted January 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Get 8.1 installed, it's WAY better at removing those temp file errors you're seeing and fixes a grooming issue too - and it's actually a free 'upgrade'. You can get it from the knowledge base pages (not sure why it's not on the main download page as paying customers installing RS 8.0 will simply walk away from the product. Eric (big cheese at Retrospect Inc) talked about an end of Q1 release for the official release - way too slow in my opinion! I don't think the update link has ever worked properly in retrospect, much like the WoL stuff.. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofstede Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I can't seem to find this update in the knowledge base. Any pointers on where to find it exactly? Nevermind. Found it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted January 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 http://kb.retrospect.com/articles/en_US/Retrospect_Article/grx-assert/?l=en_US&fs=Search&pn=1 Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramon88 Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Well, we've upgraded too... And indeed had to do everything twice because we installed 8.0 and then did the 8.1 prerelease update. So far I'm inclined to agree with Richy_Boy. I don't have the feeling I'm actually using a new major release. It feels like a small update with problems to boot. Although we are still looking into the performance gain from Instant Scan. If it works well enough and is a little bit more stable than 7.7 I would probably say it's worth the money. But we're not there yet and so far I'm not blown away at all. We're having the same problems as mentioned on this forum. I'll get back to that in a few days when I've gathered more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramon88 Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 So far I declare Instant Scan "defective". One day some clients use it and some don't, the other day the clients that did use it, do not anymore, or they say the ISA data file is dirty... So for now I conclude the feature that seemed cool enough to upgrade for turns out to be a lemon... I'm disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fulco Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 It amazes me again and again how companies producing hardware and software, are allowed to sell products that are not working for 100% (and there are major issues in 7.7). In my opinion they should comply to the same rules as all other industries, like fixing them (for free)! As an IT person, I spend the majority of my hours fixing things that should not need fixing. Or maybe I am not cut out for the job? Fulco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted January 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 No, I'm with you Fulco... this product shouldn't have been released with all of these bugs. If I can find them in a working day after upgrading, then I would expect the Retrospect test team to be able to do the same thing. So, I guess they either released 8.0 KNOWING full well about the bugs and needed the money, or their test team needs to be fired. The amount of hours I've wasted baby-sitting this software, our company could have bought something more robust like BackupExec etc, which on paper at least looks costly... I seem to be getting "Can't use open file - maximum number of snapshots already stored" right now. Instant scan bombs out, like you say or just doesn't seem to be mentioned in the logs even with an 8.1 client installed. When I click on the Backup history tab I can't see anything, even after allowing access for 'all needs' in the backup set permissions. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramon88 Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 Yeah... same here. I'm looking around for options. One of our two remaining Retrospect backup servers is already gone. That platform was replaced with dual VMware vSpheres with Veeam for backups. Never looked back. That solution just works and is extremely quick. However Veeam only works for virtual platforms (VMware and HyperV), not for bare metal desktops and servers. Nor mixed environments (Windows and OSX). And it has no tape support, which we need for some clients (real offline storage). I'm regretting my decision buying the Retrospect upgrade. 8.0 is beta-ware and 8.1 isn't much better. I rather would have sticked to 7.7 and saved the money. I've been a Retrospect user for ages but I'm afraid this way it's credit will go down the drain very quickly. If people don't buy it, the company (and product) will fail. And I can't blame people for not buying it at this time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted January 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 Was told by support by backup history might be caused by.... a corrupt config.dat file and I need to test a clean RS 8.1 install to confirm it. I AM NOT rebuilding this flippin' server from scratch again.. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramon88 Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 Hmm, I give up. We're seeing very weird behavior with Instant Scan running. When backing up a large local directory with SQL backups to LTO Retrospect 8.1 is always in effect creating a full backup (it wants to copy all ±350GB of data to tape, every time ). So after disabling ISA in services and making sure both 'ISA' processes are not running it will run as it should. So, with ISA running: it wants to backup everything again, even right after it has finished its backup run. And with ISA not running, the second run doesn't yield any new files to backup (as expected). Now the big question: WHERE CAN I GET MY MONEY BACK! (I never yell on this forum, but this time I did feel like it... ) We're now going to disable the ISA service on all our servers and workstations (don't forget to reboot). Backups will probably go quicker this way, when it doesn't needlessly add files to a given backup. Why did I upgrade again? O yeah, because Instant Scan would shave precious time from our backups... NOT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted February 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 Yeah, I see strange things with ISA too, one day it will work, the next it will not and the third day it will work again. Are you using 8.1 server and clients? I seem to be suffering from "Network Communication Failed" errors, even though I'm not seeing any network problems. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramon88 Posted February 8, 2013 Report Share Posted February 8, 2013 Since we've disabled Instant Scan altogether we seem to have the same product as before. It seems about the same as Retrospect 7.7... After all our troubles that seems to be a pro. Sad actually... We currently don't get Network Communication Errors. We use 8.1.0 (209) for the server and 10.1.0.187 (OSX) / 8.1.0 (209) (Win) for clients. All on a 64-bit 2008 R2 (STD) server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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